Generic lighting control consoles serve to control lighting systems such as those employed in theaters or on concert stages, for instance. Routinely, said lighting systems comprise a plurality of lighting devices, for instance stage spotlights, wherein, in the lighting devices on their own, it is in many cases also possible to switch between a plurality of lighting states, for instance between different colors. These different lighting states of the lighting devices connected to the lighting control console in each instance can be controlled in the lighting program of the lighting control console by way of programmed parameters. Here, standard lighting systems may comprise up to several thousand lighting devices. In order to be able to control such complex lighting systems, the generic lighting control consoles are equipped with a digital processor, which permits digital data and signal processing. For storing the data, a digital memory is routinely provided, which in particular allows for storing or archiving of lighting programs.
For programming the lighting program or for controlling the lighting program while it is running, operators have to enter operating commands as input values. Said operating commands can, for instance, be the selection of a specific lighting device or the setting of a specific parameter. For entering these operating commands, mechanical operating elements, for instance key buttons, rotary controls or slide controls, are available at known lighting control consoles. Here, the operating commands being assigned to the individual operating elements may be altered by way of suitable menu changeovers in order to be able to program and control correspondingly complex lighting programs.
A display device for electronically displaying image elements is furthermore disposed in the known lighting control consoles in order to make it possible for operators to program or control the lighting control console. There is a physical distance between the individual operating elements for entering operating commands and the display device for displaying image elements, which may, for instance, be the numerical or graphical depiction of the input data entered before. Here, the physical distance may amount to 50 cm or more, subject to the arrangement between the operating element and the display device. Said physical distance makes it harder to operate the lighting control console intuitively since the operators, owing to the physical distance, cannot simultaneously keep an eye on the operating element itself and the display device. In particular when programming the lighting control console by means of an input of operating commands at rotary controls, this is a considerable disadvantage.